U.S. Troops Battle Shiite Militants in Baghdad - Ayatollah Sistani speaks

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBHMFX12VD.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Shiite insurgents fired mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades at a police station housing U.S. troops, touching off firefights early Friday in a Baghdad neighborhood that is a stronghold of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The fighting came after U.S. troops tried to raid homes and arrest militiamen, said Adnan al-Safi, an official in al-Sadr's office. A bakery in front of the police station was set on fire, but no other damage was reported. snip

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric tacitly endorsed the new interim government, urging it to lobby the U.N. Security Council for full sovereignty in order to erase "all traces" of the American-run occupation.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani noted that the new government, appointed Tuesday by a U.N. envoy, lacks the "legitimacy of elections" and does not represent "in an acceptable manner all segments of Iraqi society and political forces."

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